An Overnight Sensation
“I didn’t know what to think about it all,” Linda says. “People were hunting for me everywhere, but I don’t do Facebook, I don’t do computers, and I don’t do a cell phone, so they couldn’t find me.”
With the help of Linda’s granddaughter Franki, however, Mason finally tracked down Linda for an interview, and that was just the beginning. In July, Linda boarded her first-ever flight to New York City and appeared on NBC’s TODAY show, and a few months later, she was on NBC’s The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I told Mom and Dad both: ‘Don’t worry about it; it’ll die down in a couple of weeks,’” says Cathy Johnson, Linda’s eldest daughter. “But it didn’t!”
Linda grew up in a neighboring county with a mother who was a wonderful cook. One dish of her mother’s that Linda treasured most was her chocolate fudge that she made on a cook stove in a heavy cast-iron skillet. “She was one of those cooks that didn’t measure a whole lot, but she made some of the best chocolate fudge you ever ate,” says Linda, who’s tried to recreate that fudge countless times. Linda also learned plenty from her mother-in-law, who taught her to make perfect meringue and tangy kraut and how to can foods.
